Philip K. Dick: Five Novels of the 1960s & 70s

Prolific. Consistently thought-provoking. Scintillatingly brilliant with uncanny frequency. Hilarious. Living an adult life mostly in poverty but surrounded by many caring people. A binge fiction writer, letter-writer, and talker.This was Philip K. Dick. He was kind enough to correspond several times with a nerdy high-school senior who had written a ten-page analysis of three of his major works.That was me.PKD's heart would soar at being included in a series of books featuring Melville, Faulkner, Fitzgerald, Hawthorne, and Thoreau. This latest volume includes FLOW MY TEARS, THE POLICEMAN SAID, still one of my favorites and the novel that sent me on my own binge of PKD reading.With an oeuvre of over fifty novels, voluminous short stories, philosophical essays, and a final tome, THE EXEGESIS, which may resemble Prokofiev's Symphony Number 2 in its gargantuan length and ultimate inaccessibility for most fans, Philip K. Dick was a ceaseless writer who found revision a nearly impossible process.His works are structured by his brilliant mind that thought aloud on paper in the form of stories that questioned the nature of reality but that also revealed a profound love for most of humanity. To read PKD is to become more deeply attuned to what it is to be human--to become an explorer held in suspense by a psychological realist who fabulated fantastic worlds that were strangely familiar.PKD's best works--five of which are included in this latest volume--are a joy to read. Because he wrote fast and didn't often revise, these are blemished works of art. But all of us are similarly blemished: it's the nature of being human. Brilliance radiates even on pages where archaic slang, incorrect predictions, and other flaws are rife.One leaves PKD's novels wishing that one could still talk to, correspond with, or hear lecture the author--or simply read brand-new examples of this genius's work. Even with his vast output, one wants more.One cannot leave the pages of PKD without feeling a strange, perhaps singular, intimacy. These novels incarnate the mind of that brilliant friend who lives nearby and raids your medicine cabinet if you're not looking.If one is attuned, one leaves the novels of PKD not just loving the words but also loving the man who wrote them, flawed as he may have been.Rereading FLOW MY TEARS, THE POLICEMAN SAID for the first time in twenty years, I discovered how much I myself had changed. The jokes had a different tone; the philosophical and psychological dimensions had taken on different shadings and colors. But the engaging ideas, the idiosyncratic but compelling characters, and the sheer energy of the novel convinced me yet again that I was in the presence of a mind that never ceased to teach. Dick, a student of so many disciplines, channelled his deepest loves and fears into his books, and we, the lucky readers alive today who continue to peruse his pages, have been given by PKD a gift similar to Mary Anne Dominic's blue vase at the end of FLOW...-- works of enduring art that are loved by many.I'm grateful that the Internet was unavailable to PKD: it might have ruined his output of novels and stories.But I wish I could see the joy and pride on his face at having two volumes (so far) dedicated to his best work.Emerson himself merited only two volumes.

The following is a repeat of the review for the other novels from the sixties. Dick's novels were worth the reading and I recommend this and the second group of novels from the sixties.. A word of caution; the contortions of his narrative and the tedium of slogging through them was, for several of the novels, not fulfilling. Especially, when there was not the reward of an ending that made some sense.During this time of lock-down, the insanity of the environment his characters wade through unfortunately reinforced the surreal outside world. I did not finish A Scanner Darkly. Things are crazy enough.

PKD usually didn't do as well with longer works as in his shorter pieces because he often lost focus before tying all the ideas together but he really is at the height of his powers as a writer in these works and they're worth a read if only because no other writer before or since in any genre has thought quite like him.

An excellent collection of some must-read PKD novels printed on weird thin paper "not as thin as bible paper but thinner than stock used for trade publications"

Sure,major PKD fans should give this tome a four or five star rating. Included is one of my favorite novels "Dr Bloodmoney, or how we got along after the bomb," which admittedly used hokey magic. "Flow My Tears" was also interesting, although the drugged time shifts have been done before. "A Scanner Darkly" was something I could not finish with the obscenely talking main character and drug driven lifestyle. And, I have been in the army and heard all the words, but I did not consider the dialogue to be at all artistic. Yes, I know, gentle reader, that I am wrong. However, "Dr. Bloodmoney" and biographical chronology appended are worth the price of admission. The lifestyle and mental status of the writer, as given in this book, go a long way toward defining the meaning, if there is any, of Philip K Dick. The Library of America should be commended for this information and the publication of the, so far, two volume set. Readers of PKD will also enjoy the four volume "The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick" published by Citadel Press.

If you read and re-read PKD, this volume is for you. The binding will last you a life time. The print is a little bit smaller than a large trade paper back normally is, probably in order to fit in so many novels.

As with all the Library of America titles, this collection is superbly edited and presents the best available drafts of the selections. These selections, although less famous than the titles in the earlier Library of America volume, are still interesting, thought-provoking and entertaining to read. I recommend this collection for your own personal library.

That book contains three novels which I've never read before. Definitely not mainstream, but I enjoyed them a lot. Also, it was very interesting to read PKD timeline, which is published at the end of the book.

I have a Gift Card given to me over a year ago, which I was waiting to use on something special. But, as the card can be used up to 10 years after purchase, no problem I thought… That something special came up recently. So, I went into my account to load on the gift card. Major problem. The code wouldn’t work. So, I contacted the Customer Service team – only to discover that they take no responsibility for Amazon Gift Cards which don’t activate not purchased directly from them. As a customer of some 17 years I was not happy to be told this. I even spoke to a supervisor who re-iterated the same message. So, clearly worrying to hear that Amazon UK don’t honour gift cards. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED: DON’T BUY THEM FROM HIGH STREET SHOPS!!!